Legislative Assembly

think that any money that is spent on this program will be well rewarded in trying to stamp out the seriousness of this disease.

I would like also to draw attention of Honourable Members to the Agnew Report in the Department of Health of the year 1966. The one thing that occurred to me as most important was found on page 85, and table three of five years of vital statistics on Prince Edward Island. Now, I noticed in this that our marriages appear to be just moderately increasing and there is a very gratifying reduction in infant deaths, but the most startling figure that I have seen, is the figure on the reduction of births, from 2,949 in 1963 which appears perhaps to have been a high point rapidly declini to 2,122 in 1966. This appears to be a new pattern and it is not solely confined to thengro- vince of Prince Edward Island. there seems to be a similar trend elsewhere in Canada, and, Mr. Speaker, as the “pill” industry continues to prosper, the birth rate declines.

Henry W. Wedge: Mr. S aker, I want to ask the Minister if he has any pro- gram in mind to start supplying t e pills to the Department.

Honourable Keir Clark: Not as yet Sir, no; they have not got that far, but they are thinking. However, this trend in birth rate is going to be very significant in this Province, and I think it is more significant if we subtract the deaths from the births because the excess of births over deaths in 1963 was 1,965 and last year it was only 1,183, this is a 40% decline. Now, I hope my Honourable friend, the Minister of Edu- cation, will also take this into consideration, because our birth rate is down 30% in three years and with eight hundred and twenty-seven fewer children born in 1966 as compared with three years earlier, we are going to have less demand on our schools in three or four years time, so it is a prime importance that we take these figures into con- sidration. Indeed the population of this Province, which is just now recovering from the figure of eighty years ago, will again be threatened unless we are able to keep the standard of living and the standard of income in this Province up to a reasonable stand-

ard compared with the rest of Canada.

Now, I would like to briefly mention the Department of Municipal Affairs. I look upon this Department now as largely being in three divisions, the Planning Divis- ion, the Municipal Relation Section, and the new Water Authority. I would also like to refer to the retirement of Mr. Claude Smith, who was recently retired as Town Plan- ner. Mr. Smith, with patience and with skill through the years, piloted this program of planning and enlarged the scope of the planning activities. A few months ago the Pro- vince acquired the services of a Provincial Planner Mr. S. W. Bishop. Mr. Bishop, I believe, originally came from England, and although we heard a great deal in this House a few days ago about hiring a Mr. Hiscox for this Department, I might say that the former Government, just two weeks before we took office had acquired the serv- ices of Mr. Bishop, and he was certainly not a native of this Province. They did see the necessity of going outside to get a man of qualifications and experience in this field. He is indeed proved very valuable and I am sure that this Province needs his serv- ices. The matter of greatest concern in regard to lanning at the moment is planning in the areas surrounding Borden, as well as in the own itself. We are about to under- take a major study of this area in co-operation with Central Mortgage and Housing Corp. and the Atlantic Development Board. There is a budget of $65,000.00 agreed to for this purpose, A. D. B. will contribute $50,000.00 and Central Mortgage and Housing will pay 75% of the balance, so the Province will only be requested to pay $3,750.00 and art of the overhead of the Department related to the study will be chargeable to this udget. It will, therefore, cost the Province very little and I hope that the survey will be very useful and avoid some of the mistakes that could occur if a Survey of this

kind were not undertaken.

Now, I think I referred to the Water Authority under Mr. Hiscox, and he is ac- companied by Mr. J. Lincoln Dewar, Mr. Robert Donnelly, and an engineer with the Federal Department of Public Works and Mr. T. M. Lothian, a professor of Science at Prince of Wales College. We transferred the Sanitary Engineering Division from the Department of Health to work directly under the Water Authority. Some days ago I was questioned as to what was left in the Department of Health, Food Control Divis- ion. In this Division I find that Dr. John Sterns is the Director; on staff are Giles Cantwell, Chief Sanitary Inspector; Clarence Murphy, Sanitary Inspector, Leo Skerry and Leonard Gallant, both whom have served there for several years, and John Brown who was acquired about June 1st, 1965, and the only new staff member is a Mr. Wood- ruff who is a student and was added since this Government took office. The problems

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